Name: Homemade Butter Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 2 Cup full fat cream or malai; 4 Cup iced water, divided

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You must be wondering why you should bother with making your own butter. There are actually several reasons! First, it’s really easy and also you end up with a superior product, especially if you choose quality cream from the fresh milk. Though store-bought butter is always there but that taste of farm freshness is missing and moreover churning out butter at home is not much time taking affair, maybe fortnightly 10 minutes.

Earlier even I use to rely on store bought butter but my recent trip to Punjab especially to Amritsar changed my whole perspective about the homemade butter and ghee (clarified butter), where even the small Dhaabas (the small food joints) serve food with fresh made butter, ghee or buttermilk and may be that is one of the reasons even the regular stuffed parathas (Stuffed Indian Bread) tastes so delicious there.

When you are in Amritsar stop keeping tap of the calories in the food, in Amritsar each and every dish is served with the generous amount of butter or ghee and it is their way of showing affection for the guest so you can’t avoid it. Sometimes if you request they are more than happy to provide you with extra butter in a bowl, which to my surprise some of the local families were asking for.

In Amritsar churning out fresh butter at home is an everyday ritual, the same butter can be melted and caramelized to prepare ghee (clarified butter) which is then used for Indian cooking instead refined or vegetable oil. The whey water collected from churned cream is called buttermilk, with the addition of little spices and herbs, it turns into a refreshing drink for summers, called Chaas.

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Homemade Butter Recipe

This is a detailed guide on how to make butter from milk cream (malai) in a few simple steps.

4.5 from 2 votes

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Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: gram

Calories: 7kcal

Author: Hina Gujral

Mixing Bowl
Spatula or Wooden Spoon
Hand Mixer

Ingredients

▢ 2 Cup full fat cream or malai
▢ 4 Cup iced water, divided

Instructions

To make butter at home you can buy ready made full cream or else you can use cream (malai) from the milk. However, this fresh cream from the milk has to be collected everyday for 10 days and stored in refrigerator in an airtight container.
To churn out butter, cream should be at room temperature. Bring out cream or malai from the refrigerator. Let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Keep iced water ready in two separate bowls.
Transfer cream to a stand mixer or a mixing bowl. Start whisking it at medium speed. Initially, the cream will start to thicken and you will get whipped cream with smooth peaks. This is STAGE 1.
Continue to whip the cream. The texture of the cream will now turn grainy or granules will form. This is STAGE 2.
Keep whipping the cream at high speed – it will look curdled and you’ll see some liquid (buttermilk) separating from the cream. This is STAGE 3. At this point, the buttermilk will begin to splash all around. Cover the bowl with a kitchen napkin or towel to avoid a messy splash all over the place.
Continue to whisk until the tiny lumps of butter are clearly separated. At this final stage, the butter will now start sticking to the whisk. Add 2 cups of ice-cold water. It will solidify the butter. Try to form a ball of butter with your hands.
Transfer the homemade butter to another bowl filled with clean ice cold water. Wash the butter chunk nicely. You can press it in a muslin or cheesecloth to drain excess liquid. Bring the edges of the cheesecloth together and press gently to extract as much buttermilk from the butter as possible.
Store the homemade butter in a clean, airtight bowl in the refrigerator.

Recipe Notes:

This is an unsalted homemade butter recipe.
If the butter is not separating clearly from the cream, then add ½ cup ice cold water to the cream and continue to whip. You can also place the bowl in the freezer for a 10 minutes. Remove and then again begin to whip and churn.
During the summer season the whole butter making process takes more than 30 minutes. The butter solids will not form that easily. Patience is the only key. Also, maintaining a cool temperature in the kitchen also helps. In short, any kind of heat will slow down the butter making process.
Make sure to rinse the butter with ice cold water and squeeze out all the liquid using a cheesecloth.